Luckily, there are processes that allow you to have content removed from Google’s index. If you already have a Webmaster Tools account, you can use the Remove URL tool to speed up the process. If you don’t have a Webmaster Tools account, you will need to add a noindex meta tag and wait for Google to crawl your content again. More details are available at Google Webmaster Central.

Before finishing up this task, you need to make sure that additional steps are taken so that your content isn’t re-crawled by Google spiders and indexed again. These steps should be taken before a site is launched, but are often overlooked or unknown to whomever owns the site. You can learn more about this on Google’s help pages.

View SEOmoz’s Social Media Marketing Guide

Notice that the link within this widget that points to the SEOmoz domain. By simply providing users with code to embed this widget on their blog or other Website, SEOmoz gains valuable links back to their domain, thus improving their number of backlinks and the position of their Web pages in major search engines. This is a classic example of a well-thought long-term link building strategy.

If you don’t already know what Scribd is, it’s a social site that allows you to upload your documents and share them with others. Scribd has a large community, which makes it an ideal place to have a presence. This allows a company to promote its content and create brand awareness. However, there are SEO benefits, although they may not always be direct.

If you’re seasoned in the SEO biz, you know that a strong content strategy is critical for a long-term campaign to be successful. A content strategy is important because creating great content will eventually result in links back to your site. By sharing your documents on Scribd, you are sharing your knowledge with their growing community. This may lead to members promoting and sharing your content within the Scribd site or on their own Web site.

You don’t have to worry about duplicate content, either because your documents are embedded in such a way that the text cannot be crawled by spiders. Instead, the sharable document is more like a widget that you can paste on your side by copying some available code snippets. I’ve pasted an example below of a b2b article written by my employer, Movéo Integrated Branding.

If you have content to share with the Scribd community, I suggest you get started. It may lead to some links down that never-ending road of link building.

Building B2B Loyalty

AWR is the only Web ranking software I’ve used, so I have nothing to compare it to. It’s always done an ample job for me, however, so I have no problem recommending it. It’s great for agencies who have clients that expect tracking reports. Remember that no matter what program you use, none is completely accurate. It’s important to communicate this to your clients, if you have them.

Overall, AWR is easy to use and has a help system in place if you have any questions. You can learn more about what AWR can do for your Web site by visiting them at www.advancedwebranking.com.

Why go through the trouble? Submitting your feed to Google Base means that you know your content is getting indexed and it also allows your results to be enhanced with additional information like the day of the event, pricing, location etc. It may be the difference in getting a click.

It’s all part of a new era in search, sometimes referred to as blended search. Search engines (not just Google, but Bing and others as well) are displaying content in search results instead of only pages. It gives the user a better experience because they have a good idea of what they’re getting when they click on the link.

Yahoo! has a similar database called SearchMonkey. Try them both out if you haven’t already.

Google Images logo

Search engines have come a long way in the last few years. Blended search has come to fruition, which means we are no longer just searching for Web pages, but all kinds of content including images, blogs, videos, products, etc. Because blended search is so prominent, it’s important to make sure all of your content is indexed. This post will focus on how to get your images indexed by Google so that they will appear in Google Images and hopefully in regular searches as well.

The secret to getting your images indexed is simple – optimize them. I suggest the following:

• Use an appropriate alt tag on all images
• Give each image a title
• Add image height and width in img tag
• Name the file using a relevant keyword (dashes between words)

If you have some extra time on your hands, check out this blog post for additional image optimizations tips.

Another point that needs attention is making sure your images can be found by search spiders. Make sure to check your robots.txt file to see if you are preventing any spiders from crawling parts of your sites that have images you want in the index.

Google Webmaster Tools gives you the option to have your images crawled, but whether or not they are prominent in the results will depend on optimization. Also, be patient. It can take months before your images are indexed properly by Google, which is all the more reason to get this done as soon as you can so you can benefit from some additional traffic.

One way you can be sure to brand your Web pages is through title tags. Append the name of your company/Web site at the end of each page – I prefer to use the pipe, followed by the name of the site for all interior pages: Example article | Jeff Swanson. Having your brand appended to the end of each page’s title tag makes your listing immediately recognizable in search engine results. This will detract users from skipping over your listing, who might have otherwise visited a page on your site. Even if you’re not a well-known brand, this is an effective way to start branding yourself and catching the attention of users.

Aside from branding your Web site online, make sure to have attractive copy that will be inviting for the user. A combination of these two tactics usually means you can sit back and watch the traffic roll in.

I’ve put together a list of five terrific sources for SEO information. There are many more available, but these are key in my opinion. You can always find terrific information and new ideas from some of the top in their profession. Also, you won’t have to worry about being penalized for shady black hat techniques that some sites may promote.

Without further ado…

5. SEO Book
Great blog and useful tools for newbies. They also provide consulting services.

4. Search Engine Land
Tons of great free information on search engine marketing. For access to more content, you can buy a premium membership for about $150/year.

3. Matt Cutts blog
For those who don’t know, Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s Webspam team. Some of the information on his blog can get very technical, but you won’t find a more trustworthy site.

2. Bruce Clay
Bruce Clay offers search engine marketing services, but also has tons of great content for you to do it on your own. A well respected name in the industry.

1. SEOmoz.org
SEOmoz is my favorite place for SEO information. They always have fresh ideas and maintain a wonderful site. Some of the content is free, like the daily blog, but to access all of their articles and SEO tools, you have to pay to become a PRO member, which is around $80/month. Well worth it.

When someone is searching for a generic term, often they are looking for information, or in the research phase. Let’s take a look at the keyword phrase “jumper cables,” for example. If your site contains a page that sells jumper cables, this term may seem attractive because it receives a hefty amount of traffic. Here are some of the results I received when researching this phrase on Google’s AdWord Keyword Tool:

jumper cables – 27,100
battery jumper cables – 1,900
jumper cable – 12,100
heavy duty jumper cables – 1,000
buy jumper cables – 210

Now, if you ran a PPC campaign in for these exact phrases, I would almost guarantee that “buy jumper cables” would be your best converting keyword. When a user types this phrase into a search engine, we know exactly what they are looking for. If your page is properly optimized, you’ll have a shot at ranking well in the SERP’s.

Aside from the relevancy, generic terms are more often than not more expensive than long-tail keywords. Users searching for “jumper cables” could be looking for information on how to use them, or just browsing brands as they are in the research phase. It might be worth bidding on this term for branding purposes, if you can get it for a reasonable price, but don’t expect a high click-through-rate or conversion rate. As far as optimizing your page, make sure not to waste your time optimizing it around ambiguous keywords.

Flags of the world

So what’s with the United States and their precious .com’s? This article from SitePoint explains how U.S. companies had difficulties in the past registering the .us ccTLD and therefore looked to alternatives, the most popular being .com. Now, .com domains are recognized as international domains.

If you you’re looking to reach residents in other countries, it’s best to purchase an additional domain using their ccTLD. In Japan (.jp), for example, their search engines (Google Japan, Baidu) give more love to domains that end with the .jp extension. From an SEO perspective, it pays to have this domain to put you in a better spot in the search engines. You’ll also want to make sure the domain is hosted in the country that you are trying to reach. There are other techniques used in international search marketing, but I’ve found this to be the most reliant.

Hope you enjoyed the refresher course.